PERSUASION, NOT RETREAT

Will the GOP have to change its positions to appeal to certain groups of voters?

This question is filling the Republican Party, all the political world, and the chattering classes after Mitt Romney’s defeat. Should the Republican Party abandon its strongly-held beliefs and its positions on political issues?

There is only one path to success that lays before us: Persuasion, not retreat.

On every dilemma facing us, the answer is persuading voters and interest groups of what we truly believe, that these policies are best for America and the alternatives will be harmful for America.

We see an impossible problem. There is no way around it. It seems we have to give up. We have to quit. We have to sound retreat.

But there is an answer: Rearrange the political landscape. Persuasion has always been the only answer. Every citizen is valuable and deserves respect. Therefore, every citizen deserves a full and convincing explanation. It is morally wrong to win by manipulation and morally right to address each voter as a mature adult and to reason with them out of respect and with equality. Cynical manipulation of the electorate is immoral.

There once was a time before the conservative movement created a national consensus that taxes should not be raised. It was not always so. Democrats adoring Franklin Roosevelt believed that government is good and assumed it should get whatever it needs. But conservatives changed the political landscape in the 1970’s and 1980’s. We created that. Conservatives built that. We persuaded the nation that raising taxes is not the answer. Obviously we are now losing that consensus (because we have forgotten how we got there). But conservative persuasion dominated the nation’s politics for 30 years on taxes.

What is best for the country? Is it good or bad for America to grant amnesty to illegal invaders? Is it good or bad for the country to raise taxes? Is it good or bad to avoid making cuts to an out of control Federal budget?

Everyone in the political world is assuming that it is better for the Republican Party to promote and implement policies only to gain its own success and win elections. This hand-wringing debate suggests that getting elected is more important than doing what is right.

The Tea Party arose because citizens realized that the parties and politicians are doing what is best for themselves, not what is best for the people, the country, or our children’s future. Demanding that the politicians stop looking out for themselves and start caring about the country is what the tea party is all about.

But, they say, if you cannot get elected, how can you do any good? The Tea Party responds: But when you get elected you don’t do the right things anyway. So that argument is wearing thing.

Yes, it is possible to win elections running on what is best for the country, as Ronald Reagan showed us. The GOP establishment didn’t believe it then and fought Reagan every step of the way, and they don’t believe it now.

For example, Obama argues that we should return to the tax rates under the Clinton Administration, the rates to which Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress reduced taxes. But the economy was booming then, thanks to Newt Gingrich (no thanks to Bill Clinton). Taxes were pouring in to the Treasury because so many people were employed and business was booming. Raising taxes now will not raise the same revenue, because the economic activity is not the same. A higher tax rate applied to lower incomes will bring in less money.

Improving the economy must come first. Growing revenue and falling deficits will follow as the economy expands. We can explain that, can’t we?

We can persuade Hispanic citizens that illegal amnesty is bad for them. Very bad. Hispanics who obeyed the law to join our country honestly have had a soft spot for their countrymen who break the law. When jobs were plentiful and the economy was booming, what’s the harm?

But when jobs are scarce, slowly Blacks and Hispanic citizens are going to figure out – if we help them think it through – that it is their job that an illegal invader is going to steal. It is not the dentist, accountant, stock broker, or insurance agent that an illegal alien is going to displace. Hispanic voters are the ones who are going to lose jobs to illegal trespassers.

Hispanic immigrants came to this country for a better life. We need to explain to them, through conservative Hispanics: Do you want to recreate the problem here in the USA that you left behind? Isn’t a culture where laws don’t matter part of the reason why you left your home country? Isn’t a lawless society the reason the economy was bad back home?

Mexico’s immigration policies are very strict. We need to challenge Hispanic voters: Why shouldn’t the USA have the same immigration policies that Mexico has? Mexico’s Southern border is tightly controlled and trespassers from the South are sent back. So, explain to us why U.S. policy should be different?

There are jobs in Mexico. Mexicans need to stay and build a better country for all Mexicans. We need to send a conservative Hispanic film crew down to Mexico and interview Mexicans commenting to their countrymen in the USA. A member of the Highlands County Tea Party in Sebring, Florida, described how his family has been visiting the same Mexican hotel for decades. They watched the same man work his way up from door man to handling luggage. Now he is the manger of the entire resort. There are opportunities for industrious Mexicans.

Jonathon Moseley is a Board member of the Northern Virginia Tea Party, and Executive Director of American Border Control. He served as Executive Director of the Legal Affairs Council. Moseley began his political activism as co-chairman of the Reagan/Bush re-election campaign for the University of Florida with Tony Ring, and joined the Speaker’s Bureau for High Frontier (which created Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative for missile defense), later working for High Frontier. Moseley was second in command of the Center for Peace in Freedom under John Kwapisz, which was created by the Heritage Foundation. Moseley has worked in dozens of election campaigns, including serving as campaign manager and treasurer for Christine O’Donnell’s 2008 nomination contest for the United States Senate from Delaware.
He is also a criminal defense attorney in Virginia, also having extensive experience in general litigation of all kinds. He was a missionary to Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union, and also taught business there. Mr. Moseley studied Physics at Hampshire College, then earned a degree in Finance from the University of Florida, where he was also a columnist for the university newspaper, and a law degree from George Mason University.

2 COMMENTS

While I know exactly what and who you meant and why you didn't name whites, you might consider listing every race if your going to name more than one in your commentary. You lost many people in the GOP target audience instantly when you said "blacks and hispanic" just hear me out. You said blacks not black and hispanic. I am from the Mississippi Delta and not a one of them blacks, you get my drift, would have heard another word you said. Typo or not…. I see racism everyday and the greatest portion isn't directed towards African Americans in my area. It comes directly from them. Every word you speak must be well selected. Any candidate we have will be sold by the Dems as a rich white racist who doesn't care about anyone but rich white people. Everything that can have multiple meanings or be twisted easily will be used against the GOP. In order to share our true visions and beliefs we must first gain the trust of every misinformed person. There are certainly millions of people, of all colors, who need to wake up to the facts listed in your article. In a one on one setting you have an obvious and easily understood message that makes perfect sense to anyone reading it and anyone it's passed on to. Yet, as simple as it is, many things are currently blocking the ears of ther ones who, in the furore, must hear us. Many fear our true intentions because they have never heard anything as the truth. Never heard our message from someone who is speaking honestly and from the heart in a non election year. Rather it is caused by memories from the past sprites of old, there is still a lot of racism that only time and further proof can relieve. This amazingly effective bullshit propaganda being instilled in them by their own leaders has tp be refuted down to the most basic of issues. It is going to take every single one of us to make this happen. Lighting a path with am honesty understanding true despite for them to know and understands the facts while never trying to prove they are wrong nor proving they have been so misinformed and were foolish. This will work far better than most methods and within 4 years they will KNOW IN THEIR HEARTS they were wrong. Since many have a low tolerance for a smart ass, if you haven't noticed, and ONE REMARK can make a person feel that you have talked down to them. Take well planed steps because one misstep like this one can and will turn thousands away from the message. Everything wil be used against us so WE MUST SHOW ALL AMERICANS that we see everyone as an equal part in this fight for progress. They have believed a simple lie with it's smoke and mirrors in what is thought to many as a RACE/CLASS war so simple steps, with simple examples, and an honest messenger will make great strides. Instead of this opinion of us as rich oppressive masters, they need to see us as we trully are, patriots who fight for them and work for their betterment every day. They need to see the members of this movement in the news from here to 2016. We have to give them the one thing they need most of all and that is progressive HOPE!!! Then they will have faith!

Yeah, I'm going to agree with Tim. I know the tea party has gotten a bad rap on the racism thing, but it's there, nonetheless. So part of being persuasive would be to recognize that issue, and to choose your words for carefully. For example, I'm sure someone one the left would pounce on this line from your article and cry "racism":

"…that it is their [Blacks and Hispanics] job that an illegal invader is going to steal. It is not the dentist, accountant, stock broker, or insurance agent that an illegal alien is going to displace."

While the demographics might support such a statement, the political realities don't!

Federal deportation officers staged a massive enforcement action against businesses in Los Angeles this week, arresting 212 people and serving audit notices to 122 businesses that must prove they aren’t hiring illegals, according to a report on Friday in The Washington Times.